


for even when the world has come undone i will follow

by kimaracretak



Series: even if daylight's a lifetime away [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: (yes this does mean no henry), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, fairytale wars and the women who lead them, fanmix related, look at this wonderful world that is nothing but ladies being amazing with no stupid boys, on reparations and repair and reasons to never stop trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 04:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6839173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(stalk the senses, stalk the beast, stalk the senses, come the beast / by the side of all we knew we sat and talked and sat and talked / up around the river bend i was separated from you / up around the river bend we were separated in two): The shadows don’t fall under her fire or break between the wolf’s teeth and above all the blood Pan’s laughter rises edged with hysteria, but what matters is Red beside her, Emma collecting the town behind her, her thin withered heart brightening under love she’s still learning how to accept and return.</p><p>Four fanmix-related mini-fics for the world where Regina found Red in the Enchanted Forest before Snow did // An overview of an AU I may or may not ever write more of</p>
            </blockquote>





	for even when the world has come undone i will follow

**Author's Note:**

> title from stream of passion, 'the curse', summary quote from phideaux, 'micro softdeathstar'

_i.[stars may be lonely](http://8tracks.com/kimaracretak/stars-may-be-lonely)_

 

Red is alone and scared when Regina finds her and the queen immediately promises that this is the last time she will be either of those things. They fit together equally well in bedchamber and battlefield and Regina writes different stories with Red at her side, but they’re not different _enough_ : the Evil Queen may be happy, but she may never stay so for long. When the curse comes Red gazes up at her with eyes sharpened from their life together and asks only that she be allowed to stay with her grandmother and this Regina grants her, even as she curls around the wish that she be able to grant Red’s unspoken want — that she allow this, care, them to be enough to stop the curse — and _tugs_ and still doesn’t manage to tear it from her heart.

 

* * *

 

 

_ii.[the story that will read you real](http://8tracks.com/kimaracretak/the-story-that-will-read-you-real)_

 

During the curse Red is the one to find Regina, and she laughs at the perfect improbability of it. Storybrooke was meant to be hers alone, she carries every year of the town in her bones and every story that she doesn’t have to write anymore twists around her fingers. But the curse has a mind of its own, and she changed enough of it — bringing Maleficent, keeping Red and her grandmother together — that she shouldn’t be surprised that Red remembers their _connection_ , if not the details. They fall in together again easily, and it’s not wholly real and not wholly happy but it’s _theirs_ and Regina can fool herself into thinking that’s enough. And then they start to remember.

 

* * *

 

 

_iii.[the wilderness of stolen things](http://8tracks.com/kimaracretak/the-wilderness-of-stolen-things)_

 

Emma breaks so much more than just the curse: bonds of trust, barriers between realms, all shatter under Emma’s magic, Emma’s love. Regina doesn’t hide, exactly, a queen doesn’t _hide_ , but she’s not a queen anymore in anything but name and she knows what’s coming for her. Red arrives before the mob, though, looks up at her with the wolf’s keen eyes and Ruby’s kind ones and says _you gave me twenty-eight years i didn’t have to know, twenty-eight years and you made yourself the only monster in the world even when you weren’t, really and i want to, can i, try, can we try_ – and Regina is so surprised that she says _yes_ before she realises she’s opened her mouth. And their pasts will never be soaked in anything but blood but the future, bursting out from between their interlaced fingers, can be any colour they want, if Regina lets herself believe — and it’s so _so_ hard, but Red makes her want to try.

 

* * *

 

_iv.[the sky is set to cold](http://8tracks.com/kimaracretak/the-sky-is-set-to-cold)_

 

With the breaking of the barriers comes the arrival of the shadows to Storybrooke, and Regina would laugh with the relief of having something to focus on other than a second chance only Red and Emma believe she deserves if she didn’t know what awaited all of them if the shadows won. The shadows don’t fall under her fire or break between the wolf’s teeth and above all the blood Pan’s laughter rises edged with hysteria, but what matters is: Red beside her, Emma collecting the town behind her, her thin withered heart brightening under love she’s still learning how to accept and return. When Pan’s curse falls she holds their hands tight and reaches out with her magic and _pulls_ — and they’re back in the forest, and Red is kissing her, and this is new, and _this_ is enough.


End file.
